Monday, 4 July 2016

Army hunts for lethal assault rifle, junks DRDO's Excalibur

Wants `Higher Kill Probability' With Effective Range of 500 Mn

Army has launched a fresh hunt for a new-generation assault rifle
all over again. Rejecting the 5.56 x 45 mm calibre Excalibur rifle offered by the
DRDO-Ordnance Factory Board combine, the force has now decided to go in for a
7.62 x 51 mm gun with “higher kill probability and stopping power“.

In the race to acquire high-end weapon systems from submarines and
fighters to howitzers and helicopters, basic weaponry and protective gear for
ordinary foot-soldiers often do not get the requisite attention and push by the
brass.

But the Army says it means business this time, shrugging aside
failed attempts to acquire new rifles over the last decade.

The RFI (request for information) for the new 7.62 mm assault
rifles is going to be issued soon to eliit responses from around the globe.
“The GSQRs (general staff qualitative requirements) or technical parameters for
the rifles will then be formulated before the actual tender is floated to
invite bids,“ said a source.

It was in April that the Army commanders' conference first
discussed whether the force required a 7.62 mm rifle that “killed“ or a 5.56 mm
rifle that “incapacitated“ enemy soldiers, as was then reported by TOI.

“The decision has now been taken to go for 7.62 x 51 mm rifles with a
higher kill probability and accuracy at an enhanced effective range of
500-metre,“ said the source.

The military wisdom till now was that the 5.56 mm rifle was better
for conventional war because it generally injured an enemy soldier, tying down
at least two of his colleagues to carry him in the battlefield. Conversely ,
the 7.62 mm rifle was better for counter-insurgency since terrorists had to be
killed at the first instance, eliminating the risk of “suicide bombing“.

Soldiers largely use the 7.62 mm AK-47 rifles for
counter-insurgency operations in Kashmir and the northeast, even though the
infantry is saddled with the indigenous glitch-prone 5.56 mm INSAS (Indian small
arms system) rifles.

The fully-automatic Excalibur, which fires 5.56 x 45 mm ammunition,
is a much-improved version of INSAS rifle that entered service in 1994-1995.
But the Army now wants 7.62 mm rifles for greater lethality.

The Army's overambitious experiment to induct rifles with
interchangeable barrels, with a 5.56 x 45 mm primary barrel for conventional
warfare and a 7.62 x 39 mm secondary one for counter-terrorism, miserably flopped
last year.

As
was first reported by TOI in May last year, the proposed mega project was
junked since the rifles on offer by armament firms like Colt (US), Beretta
(Italy), Ceska (Czech) and Israel Weapon Industries were not found
cost-effective or suitable after extensive trials.

Under
the project, 65,000 rifles were to be directly acquired from the selected
vendor to equip the 120 infantry battalions deployed on the western and eastern
fronts.The OFB was to then subsequently manufacture over 1,13,000 such rifles
after getting transfer of technology from the foreign company.

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